Shards of Darkness
by The Hand Of Glory
Summary: Shards Of Snape's dark childhood
1. The Spiders

None of the characters belong to me unfortunately. I'm new at this so if you don't like the story, forget about it.

A look Inside of Snape's memory

Snape stalked through the halls of Hogwarts alone, watching his back for Potter and Black. Running into Lupin or Pettigrew didn't sound too appealing either. Every so often, he turned down a random corridor and peered back to where he had come from, looking for confirmation that no one was tailing him. Thanks to his specialty of rendering himself invisible in the shadows, it had been quite awhile since the self dubbed "Mauraders" had seen him last . Peering around the corridor leading to the Great Hall, he realized that Potter and Black were nowhere to be seen.

It wasn't that he was afraid of them... it was just that he much rather not have another run in with them so soon after they had made a laughing stock out of him during transfiguration. _If only there weren't three and a half of them... I could take Peter out by stomping on his foot, the fool_, he thought to himself. He hurriedly entered the Great Hall and ran directly to the Slytherin table at the far left. He tried to sit down by himself, preparing to eat his lunch, avoiding notice, when all of a sudden Sirius Black came and stood next to him. Horrified, he tried not to look up until he had his ebony wand ready. Just as Severus was about to utter a warning to Black, Sirius put his wand down in front of him on the table with a click and proceeded to explain that McGonagall wanted him to apologize for turning Snape's Slytherin broach into a giant spider. Snape eyed Sirius carefully as Black went on about not really meaning any harm with his joke. Snape reviewed the circumstances ... Black had made McGonagall very angry, infuriating her further with his claims that his "_Arachnifors"_ spell had missed his pebble and had hit Severus instead purely without intention. Severus then remembered how she had given both James and him detention with Filch for a week. It would seem likely that McGonagall would make them apologize…but yet, something didn't feel right, and by the looks of the head table there weren't any teachers in the hall as yet. _Sirius would surely wait until a teacher witnessed his apology, so he wouldn't have to do it again_, Snape realized. He stared at Sirius to his right and then down to Sirius's wand as it lay useless on the table and thought to himself, M_aybe he is really apologizing_. Because Sirius's wand lay motionless on the table, Snape decided that he would be safe telling Sirius that he was a filthy git after they had shook hands.

Sirius reached for Snape's hand and shook it briefly, picked up his wand, and briskly walked away, barely hearing Snape call him a filthy git as he was trying so very hard to keep from laughing. "Black and Potter two, Snivellus ZERO!" Black chanted quietly as he at back down at the Gryffindor house table.

Snape felt better that nothing had happened with the encounter and that he actually called Black a filthy git with no response. "It's about time he realized that he's a git," Severus sneered, wiping his chin length raven hair out of his face. When he looked up, he realized that everyone in the Hall was shooting strange glances his way. Snape ate his lunch quickly and grabbed his satchel, dashing toward the door to the Entrance Hall so he would not be gawked at like a caged animal any more. Sure he was used to being stared at because everyone enjoyed getting a laugh out of Sirius's and James's horrible pranks on him. It wasn't a hidden fact that he had few, if any friends. As he reached the door something made him stop…

" Hey Snivellus, whatcha got on your shoulder?" an all too familiar voice shouted mockingly from the Gryffindor House table. Sirius black jumped up from his seat at the Gryffindor House table and pointed directly at Snape. Suspicions mounted as Severus noticed James Potter striding from the direction of the Slytherin House table coming to sit next to Lupin, Pettigrew, and Black at the Gryffindor Table.

Snape refused to look. Snape reasoned with himself silently, _He's just trying to get me to look_; _there's nothing there_. _Don't you dare look Severus!_ Another voice of panic flooded into his head, telling him, _What if there really is something on my shoulder? Shouldn't I just make sure there's nothing there?_ Snape decided to look after he walked out of the Great Hall. He continued walking briskly toward the door when all of a sudden, he felt an unusual prodding sensation on his shoulder just as he reached for the doorknob. His eyes widened with fear as he slowly turned around to find himself face to face with a giant orange and black tarantula snapping violently. Scared, he grabbed his bag ready to smack the spider off, suddenly realizing his whole bag was alive, teeming with spiders of all shapes and sizes. He dropped his bag and tried to shake off his cloak, but found that it must have had a permanent sticking charm placed on it. Seeing that the spider was about to bite Severus, Lily Evans, a fellow third year, got up from the Gryffindor House table and strode forward whispering, "_exgripendo"_, while pointing at Snape's cloak. A gray jet of light shot out of Lily's wand and encased the whole of Severus's cloak. The force of the spell hitting his cloak unbalanced him, causing him to trip over the hem of the glowing cloak. Lily moved forward until Snape offered her a hatefull glare. He stumbled to his knees, rose rapidly attempting to escape the spiders now crawling everywhere, tore off the cloak, and sprinted out of the hall, leaving all his books and quills behind, lost in a crowd of jeering students. Despite the cruel look she had received, Lily collected all of Snape's belongings and followed after him into the hallway.


	2. Pain on Ice

Severus rubbed his head where Sirius Black had pummeled him with a snowball. He had been on his way from Care of Magical Creatures heading for the castle when the clump of snow, or rather ice, knocked him down. He was still lying on the ground and judging by the darkening of the sky, he appeared to have been here for some time. Looking at the Forbidden Forest, the trees bordering the Hogwarts Grounds appeared to be twirling around. He shook his raven-haired head a couple times, but nothing would make his head stop from spinning; however, determined, he struggled to his feet. He stood for a few seconds before collapsing onto his knees.

'_Shoot. I must be really late for Transfiguration. McGonagall is going to kill me_.' He decided to just crawl to the steps leading up to the Hogwarts Bridge. Slowly he moved forward. Looking down he spotted a reddish brown substance contaminating the perfect snow beneath him. He touched his hand to the back of his ebony hair, only to find his hair was frozen with blood and that the blood continued coming.

'_Damn! Now what_?' He searched up his sleeve for where he kept his wand. It wasn't there. ' _My wand, oh shoot where is it_!' his mind yelled in despair. He slowly turned himself around, looking at where he had been lying. Sure enough his wand lay many feet away, right next to the Forbidden Forest. 'Yeah sure Black, attack an enemy with his back turned, and then throw away his wand when he is unconscious', his mind spat at the increasing darkness.

Suddenly he heard footsteps behind him. He looked up to find Remus Lupin and Lily Evans blankly starring at him. Lily ran over to Snape and looked at the back of his head. "Remy he's bleeding!" Remus paused and scanned the surroundings, carefully looking for something. He then ran over to the edge of the Forbidden Forrest and picked up a long ebony wand out of the brush. "Yeah this was definitely Sirius. James might have attacked, but James would never have thrown his wand away while he was unconscious. That's more of Sirius' style," Remus growled angrily. He pocketed Snape's wand, and ran over to his friend's enemy. He did a medical analysis of Snape and found nothing wrong other than the large cut to the back of his head. Snape felt as if he had been shaken up on the inside; thus, he was unable to protest Remus lifting him off of the ground because he found, to his despair, that he couldn't even form the words.

Remus picked Snape up, and the three slowly made their way back to the castle. Lily asked Snape how long he had been out there. Snape only gave her a nasty look and shook his head. '_Apparently these dunderheads don't know I can't talk at the moment_.' Lily tapped Remus' shoulder when they neared the end of the long covered bridge. "Lupin, wait! Isn't that Malfoy?" she whispered to her companion.

Lupin stopped dead and slowly put Snape down in the shadows of the bridge. The three sat there for a couple minutes until Malfoy had stopped scanning the landscape and had gone back inside. "That would have been horrible for all of us," Lily breathed out slowly. Lupin picked up Snape again and quickened his pace into the castle. He practically bounded up the stairs to the Medical Wing.

They decided to put Snape on one of the hospital beds and ring Madam Pomfrey's service bell. Surprisingly, Lily gave Severus a slight hug before the pair bounded out of the hospital wing. Severus just lay there waiting for the nurse to rush in. For once in his life, he wished that he had someone that would have stayed with him. '_This will not lessen the amount of payback that idiot Black will get,_' Snape thought irately. Hearing the pounding of footsteps and a muffled cry, he blacked out. The next day, Snape woke up to find that he could see straight and better yet he could use his voice again. Pomfrey walked in after hearing Severus moving in bed. She asked him what had happened. He quickly said that he had fallen down the stairs.

"Yes, you might think you can fool me, but from the way your hair was frozen to your open wound, I would imagine someone found you outside." Severus paled . She said to him, "Well, Mr. Snape, you are perfectly fine now and may leave the Hospital Wing. Let's just put it this way, thank God you have angels watching over you. Who knows if I could have healed you if you were just left out there." The woman gave him a smile and pointed at the table next to the bed. It had a simple black envelope lying on it. He took the envelope and ran out of the hospital wing towards the dungeon. '_I don't believe it I got a get well card _', he thought as he ran to his common room. He ran in and down to the second year dormitories. He collapsed onto his bed and carefully slid the knife he kept under his pillow along the crease of the envelope, opening it with extreme care. His face fell when he found a letter in the envelope. He scanned the letter and threw the letter down on his bed. It read:

_Snape where the hell are you? My friend, it would appear you are avoiding me. I realize you are just a second year, but you are rumored to be quite the potions maker. If this is true I have someone that would love to meet you when the time comes. We both realize how special your skills are and would love you to eventually join us in our noble quest. _

_L. Malfoy_

Meanwhile in the Hospital Wing, Pomfrey was cleaning up the sick bed where Severus had been. She found a small white card lying face down on the floor. She opened it and read its message:

_Dear Severus, we both hope you are not in pain.Really we do! We came to find you after hearing about what happened.Get well soon, I guess. See you in school soon?_

_-Someone who cares_

'_What a pity he threw it on the floor'_, Pomfrey though to herself, failing to notice the strong winter gust coming from the window by Severus' bed. She lit the card on fire and threw its remains out the window.


End file.
